Ann Romney not ideal role model for women

Women, even in their 20s work full time, go to school full time, and some even have a family. Yet the fact that Ann Romney hasn’t worked a day in her life stirred up some trouble among modern day women. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqVomH9JOsA)

Today many women no longer cook like their mothers but work like their fathers, and some do both. A lot of pressure is placed on today’s women to not only provide for their family, but also attend school for a higher education.

So while being a mother is the hardest job there is, what about the mothers who do more than spend their mornings and afternoons with their children? Who finds babysitters so they can make enough money to put food on the table at the end of the night? Who cooks and cleans and reads and plays with their children after they have already put in enough hours in a day to go home and sleep?

While I believe that more women need to stay at home with their children until their children are attending a full-time scholastic institution, I truly do not believe Ann Romney understands how hard it is to be a full-time mom and bread winner.

So how can she represent those women?

While I do not know what it’s like to be a mother, as a 20-year-old single college student, I have watched my mother raise two kids and work full time. I have never felt a void in my family's relationship, nor have I ever felt neglected, unintelligent or lost. I congratulate those women who do it all and on top of that attend college.

As I sat in my Psychology 1010 class last semester on human development and the lifespan, and I learned most of the women in the small class were mothers. They had three to four kids at home and were still planning on having more. They were at college to better their career. While some worked, others didn't--but were preparing to.

Yet, the fact that Ann Romney chose to be a stay-at-home mom because she has the financial support to do so isn’t what knocked me off my rocker, it was the fact that through high school, and even her first year of college, she never had to work to earn a penny for food, gas, or even clothes!

It’s the fact that I know 16-year-olds, 18-year-olds, and young college students who have worked more than our potential first lady.

It's the fact that stay at home moms are in college because their husbands can no longer support the families on their own. And while our whole system is screwed up because both parents have to work now in order to even come close to the financial stability they desire--Ann Romney has not.

Shouldn’t our potential first lady and representation of the women in America at least know what it’s like to get her hands dirty and pay for her own things? After all, isn’t our country all about individuality, equality and progress? It is, or it should be, and as a potential first lady she should be able to represent the working class by saying, “I’ve been there, I feel you and I am here to help.”

But instead she hasn’t earned a penny in her entire 60 some odd years of life. It’s shocking. Then again, maybe she'll be one of the women to change the system around once again.